Educating for Citizenship? Re-Assessing the Role of Islamic Instruction in German Schools

Abstract

Positing a "clash of cultures," many European politicians oppose Muslim headscarves as well as Islamic instruction in public schools; the real source of "failed integration" lies not with the religiosity of young Muslims but rather with an arcane definition of "state neutrality" that sustains the dominance of some religions at the expense of others. Focusing on Germany, this study reviews educational statistics pertaining to youth of migrant origin, showing that conflicts over Islamic instruction mirror deeper patterns of minority discrimination. It outlines the legal hurdles new faith communities must overcome to secure recognition as "corporate entities under public law" (Körperschaftsstatus), entitling them to accredited teacher training, tax-funded salaries, construction subsidies, and other institutional privileges. It describes divergent curricular models utilized by the Länder, followed by a closer look at Islamic instruction in Berlin, where a court ruling compelled authorities to take a pro-active approach. It concludes with a review of dilemmas inherent in Germany's approach to "value education" against the backdrop of the new European Union anti-discrimination directives.Show me any mischief produced by the madness or wickedness of theologians, and I will show you a hundred resulting from the ambition and villany of conquerors and statesmen. Show me an absurdity in religion, and I will undertake to show you a hundred for one in political laws and institutions Edmund Burke, 1756

A Content Analysis of the Friday Sermons of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs in Germany (DİTİB)

“…Since the 1990s, however, the preferences of the German government have shifted away from outsourcing to the incorporation of Islam in Germany, in order to monitor religious practices more closely (Laurence 2012(Laurence , 2016. New opportunity structures such as the German Islam Conference 2 , the organization of religious education in public schools and the training of imams are evidence of this (Mushaben 2010;Michalowski and Burchardt 2015;Hunger and Schröder 2016). The existing structures are illustrated in Figure 1.…”